Strategic Public Relations

Blogs: little tool. BIG Impact.

Presented to the Dayton Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America yesterday afternoon. The topic? Blogs: little tool. BIG Impact.

Here's a local snippet from the presentation you might appreciate:

"Mark Twain said when the end of the world comes, he wanted to be in Cincinnati. It will come there 10 years later. So when the Cincinnati Enquirer's editorial cartoonist jokes about blogs, it is a clear sign the technology has arrived.

Blogs are a hot topic right now. The only thing greater than an early adopter’s passion for blogs, is the confusion that blogs can create for most everyone else."

Many of the PR bloggers are out and about right now, spreading the news about blogs. From online presentations and published articles, to even creating a new forum to discuss the topic. This is all good stuff that gets the word out about Blog power™.

But I will note that, unlike others, I am pretty pragmatic about them in my speech.* For example, I position blogs as a tool that won't overthrow big media. I mean, who in the heck would we link to?

* Thanks to the equally grounded Tom Murphy for the link.

Starbucks Extends Brand

Starbucks just announced a new service where you can burn your own custom music CD while waiting for your latte. "The company will install three to six terminals for choosing music and burning CDs in each of 15 stores in Seattle and 30 in Austin, Texas, said Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks' entertainment division."

To which I say, "Veni, Vedi, Venti!" HP is supporting the new service and the two brands look great together in my opinion.

But for other retailers green with envy over this news (Starbucks green?), there's still hope. This approach totally ignores iPods and other mp3 players. Hook up with Apple and create an iTunes * kiosk that is friendly to any mp3 player for a similar concept taking up less floor space. The customer cannot walk out the door with a store-branded CD, but you could create a frequent buyer program earning free iTunes. You could also prepackage songs to avoid a long line of folks waiting to find and download songs. This is a branding opportunity in itself. Choose a mix of songs aligned with your brand and your target customer.

From coffee to beer, it looks like Cincinnati has been selected as the location for the Beer Hall of Fame. Even better, it looks like my company will be designing it. So drink up.

*Talk about two brands looking great together, check out U2's iTunes commercial. Great way to create buzz around a single and upcoming CD.

New Blog Holds Newspapers Accountable

On an anecdotal basis, blogs have been holding newspapers accountable for awhile now. CBS' "Rathergate" is the most recent, well-known example.

Regret the Error is a new blog that does nothing but report on newspaper errors. The site claims it "reports on corrections, retractions, clarifications, and trends regarding accuracy and honesty in North American media."

Will blogs end traditional journalism as we know it? Nope. Will blogs create competition and force traditional journalism to evolve and, in the process, improve? Regret the Error is one example that they will.

Here's an idea. After the slew of CEO crises, we're finally starting to see CEOs get out in front of the issue. Best Buy's CEO gave his bonus back to his employees for example. Well, wouldn't it be great if The Gray Lady or WSJ created their own retraction blogs? Don't be surprised if you see one soon.

Fighting Crime with Google

Have you ever wondered what a company's URL might be, only to do a search and realize it is the company's name...wedged in between www and .com? Doph!

This shows how reliant we've become on search engines. And for good reason—as they become more powerful, Google, Yahoo and other search engines help us find the answer to most any question.

Google, the Internet search engine, has done something that law enforcement officials and their computer tools could not: Identify a man who died in an apparent hit-and-run accident 11 years ago in this small town outside Yakima.

Detective Pat Ditter of the Washington State Patrol searched with Google for about a week before identifying the victim as David Glen Lewis, 39, who died 1,606 miles from his home in Amarillo, Texas.

This is not the first time search engines have helped law enforcement officials. And I am willing to bet it won't be the last. Now I am not saying Google holds the answers to the universe. I am saying, "Google first, ask questions later."

Pitch Blogs with Caution...if at all

Blogs. To pitch or not to pitch? Well, it depends on your definition of pitch.

I've received a ton of irrelevant pitches since starting Strategic Public Relations more than two years ago. Just yesterday, someone posted a press release as a comment to one of my posts. Can you say DELETE?! Luckily for the individuals pitching me, I usually just delete them and move on.

Well, Tom Murphy gives us a great (read: embarrassing) example of why you should pitch blogs with caution.

With journalists, a bad pitch usually just means no editorial placement. With bloggers, a bad pitch can get you negative attention. Blogs are changing the media relations landscape in this regard. Hopefully this phenomenon will increase the number of good, customized and relevant pitches. A successful media relations approach resembles one-to-one marketing, not a mass mailing.

Some professionals will tell you not to pitch blogs at all. But I disagree. We just need to redefine the concept, and the desired outcome, of pitching a blog.

Push-button publishing does not mean instant results. You need to build a relationship with the blogger over time. Since blogs are online, everyone seems to take an Internet-speed mindset when it comes to pitching us. This is incorrect. It takes time.

Engage the blogger. Post a substantive comment to their blog, or send them an e-mail adding your thoughts onto a post. This shows them you are reading the blog and have a relevant opinion to contribute. This also means your comment or e-mail needs to be more than a "me too" or "right on" statement.

Look for a Relevant Link. Now, most folks would assume that once you have engaged the blogger, you can pitch them at free will. Wrong. Continue to read their blog. If a pitch or piece of news you have corresponds with something the blogger is writing about, send them a link to learn more as an FYI.

Pitching a blogger should be a continuation to a conversation you have already started with the person. Better yet, send them a link to an article you already placed. To me, I think the best opportunity with blogs for media relations is bringing more attention to traditional publicity efforts.

Who are we? What are we? We can call bloggers all kinds of things from citizen journalists to evangelists to @#$&^%!. But at the end of the day, good bloggers are people with opinions on a specific topic. As such, consider them industry influencers and work with them accordingly.

Tom has me convinced. PR bloggers need to start calling out bad pitches as a rule. Not to sound dramatic, but maybe it will help raise the quality of media relations overall. Not to sound negative, but I doubt it.

Blog Ads Gain Momentum

Purists may disagree with me, but this news on big media using blogs to advertise is a good thing. First it vets the power of our favorite medium in reaching influencers in niche audiences.

In a striking example of how more big advertisers are aiming dollars outside the major media, the ad for "Sex and the City" reruns on cable's TBS have appeared the past month on 50 political blogs. SNIP

"You can carpet-bomb the world or you can go to the news-junkie and opinion-maker class," said Henry Copeland, the owner of Blogads.com, which placed the "Sex" and "Team America" spots, as well as ads for The New Yorker, Random House and other names. SNIP

As the so-called mass market shrinks amid a dizzying number of media choices - on cable TV and the Internet, for instance - advertisers have pursued audiences wherever they may have gone. As a result, the much-buzzed-about political blogs are but the latest media to benefit as advertisers divert more of their budgets to narrowcasting.

Secondly, this means seemingly full-time bloggers can more easily go pro and make a good living at it. Think about it. If Micropersuasion was a 24/7 entity, would you need to go anywhere else for the latest blogosphere news?

Nokia, Motorola--Wake Up & Blog

While picking up a new cell phone recently, I was reminded of a long overdue post. Over a month ago, B.L. Ochman shined a light on 10 companies missing the blog boat. Well, perhaps we should add an entire industry to the list—consumer electronics. Or, for the sake of a shorter post, let's simply call out cell phone manufacturers. Disclaimer: I surfed Nokia and Motorola's corporate sites. Neither site's search engine or site map shows a blog.

This hit my radar during a conversation with Intelliseek's CMO, Pete Blackshaw. I asked Pete which company he thought should have a blog and he immediately offered up an entire industry.

“Consumer electronic manufacturers, like Nokia, have tons of new product information that comes out on a near daily basis,” says Blackshaw. “The industry players should blog to create a sense of community with their top customers. The smart ones would test new product ideas and fold the best input into new products. People value companies that are engaged with their customers."

This would be easy enough to do, cell phones and other gadgets already have an established audience of bloggers. Just look at blogs like Engadget and Gizmodo and consider the amount of people frequenting those blogs to stay up on the latest. A blog from either company would instantly become an oft-linked, daily read.

N-Gage Your Customers: In the aftermath of Global PR Blog Week, I discussed this topic with eKetchum Digital Media Group's Anthony V Parcero. He added that Nokia should have tapped into the blogosphere when developing its N-Gage mobile game decks. Nokia could have enlisted its biggest fans to avoid a lot of the negative buzz N-Gage is receiving.

What is Nokia doing instead of blogging? Product development. Lifeblog software helps Nokia customers moblog. I was wondering why we hadn't seen RSS on cell phones. We're seeing some progress in this department too. Bringing RSS to cell phones makes the handy device even more useful. Now if Nokia could make my cell phone my wallet and eliminate the need for my debit card, they would have one happy customer.